Phoenix Point - Interview @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer has interviewed Julian Gollop about his new game Phoenix Point:

Phoenix Point is X-COM creator Julian Gollop's vision of a grand strategy game

We speak to the creator about how his new turn-based game is coming together.

The permafrost has melted, unleashing a terrifying alien virus. An eerie mist rolls across the planet, compelling people to wander into the ocean, where they emerge as hideous, mutated monsters. The world is a mess, and in turn-based strategy game Phoenix Point, it’s your job to clean it up.

“When the game starts in 2047, most of humanity has been killed, abducted, or transformed into alien monstrosities,” says lead designer Julian Gollop, who is best known for creating the original X-COM series. “But there are a few isolated groups that have managed to survive.”

“The Phoenix Project organisation you’re the leader of is very diminished,” he says. “You’re being attacked on all sides by various different powers. But out of the ashes of the devastation of the virus, which comes to be known as the Pandora virus, there comes a number of charismatic leaders who claim their factions will be able to rebuild the world and make it better.”

Julian Gollop has been making strategy games for decades, from Laser Squad and Rebelstar Raiders in the ’80s, to bringing the legendary X-COM series to the world’s attention in the ’90s. That’s the old X-COM, with a dash after the X, rather than Firaxis’ recent (and equally superb) reboot, XCOM. But Phoenix Point seems to be bigger, grander, and more ambitious than anything he’s done before, and I ask what inspired him to start the project.